Archive for the Music Category

Driving around the suburbs, I see more and more cars with little stick figure families. If you don’t know what I mean, these are decals on the back window that depict the dynamic of the family: usually a father, a mother, two kids, a soccer ball, and a dog. Or some combination thereof. If you still don’t know what I’m talking about, here’s a site that sells them. I am not endorsing this site in any way, and I give you fair warning: it’s in comic sans.

I kind of want to make a line of Hermetic stick figure families. I’d have two men, two (three, soon, hopefully) books, two manuscripts, an easel and some paintings . . .

It is right and fitting from a hermetic perspective that people affirm their identity by means of their children. It is even right and fitting that they advertise such things in glyphs on their vehicles. After all, our children make hieroglyphs on our bodies and souls: why not on our cars? But the magician recognizes that there are children and there are children. To create flesh-and-blood children is wonderful, but it’s also wonderful to create other children: a unique arrangement of words, a painting, a language, a new way of cooking fish, a song. We create our soul by the children we have. It doesn’t matter if anyone else likes them (no one is ever going to pay to hear the songs I write, I suspect, and certainly no one is interested in artificial languages). What matters is that before me, there were not these things in the world. After me, there is.

The only real difference between the magician and the artist, I suspect, is that the hermetic magician never puts down his or her brushes and pallet, and regards the whole world as an easel.

Been working on the piano lately. I’m taking lessons, practicing daily, and actually beginning to learn. Kind of cool, actually, to develop a skill. I was thinking of writing something about how to learn things, but I don’t know how I’d go about it, or who would ever want to read it.

So I’m working on publishing my second book right now, talking about bidniz and all. I’ll keep you abreast of developments, but the book won’t see shelves until August of next year, roundabout. So be patient.

Here’s a video clip of Welsh actor Ioan Gruffudd reading one of the “Taliesin” poems. “Taliesin” is the name given to a Welsh bard and cultural hero. He’s also an archetype for the transforming sorcerer and the protean bard. The clip is in Welsh, with subtitles.

Overall, this is a good example of an incantation. Taliesin identifies himself not just as the master of secrets, but as the metaphor itself — he has been all of these things, and all of these things are Taliesin. Taliesin identifies himself as the “is” in metaphor.

So I finally bought some keyboard lessons. It’s a little strange to sit in the waiting room of the music academy here and wait with all the parents. I desperately hope they don’t make small-talk. “Are your children taking piano lessons?” “Um. No.” Assumption of heteronormativity and — can’t find a Greek name for it — the idea that learning stops with adulthood?

She (the teacher) has me working on some rather simple, basic things, which is good, since it’s those basics I lack. I’m pleased that she’s already got me building chords and using both hands. We also seem to share a loathing for mindless learning. She says that in two weeks, we’ll start playing the Blues. Ain’t that cool.